During his Ph.D. work at the University of California, Riverside, Jake Cecala, Ph.D., conducted a project looking at the effects of irrigation and pesticide use in ornamental plants on solitary bee reproduction. The project comprised 20 mesh flight cages set up in a field at the campus agricultural station. Each cage had 30 potted plants and an automated irrigation setup, and he filled each cage with alfalfa leafcutting bees (Megachile rotundata).